Hooked: Review
★★★
“James may not be a hero, but even villains can feel.
And you can’t help who you love.”
James has always had one agenda: destroy his enemy, Peter Michaels. When Peter’s twenty-year-old daughter Wendy shows up in James’s bar, he sees his way in. Seduce the girl and use her for his revenge. It’s the perfect plan, until things in James’s organization begin to crumble. Suddenly, he has to find the traitor in his midst, and his plan for revenge gets murkier as James starts to see Wendy as more than just a pawn in his game.
Wendy has been cloistered away most of her life by her wealthy cold father, but a spontaneous night out with friends turns into an intense and addictive love affair with the dark and brooding James. As much as she knows James is dangerous, Wendy can’t seem to shake her desire for him. But as their relationship grows more heated and she learns more about the world he moves in, she finds herself unsure if she’s falling for the man known as James or the monster known as Hook.
What happens when you fall in love with the bad guy?
I’ll start by saying this book was a very satisfying read, which is saying something when you consider I’d just finished reading Fourth Wing when I picked this book up.
It’s been 20 weeks since I started on my mission to read as much as I can get my hands on this year, watching my reading goal climb from 20 books, to 50, to now 100 books before the year is out, so I’m bound to stumble onto some books I otherwise wouldn’t want to read.
This is how I found Hooked.
Emily has prefaced her series, saying it is not a retelling, nor is it a fantasy. It’s a complete re-imagination of the childhood favorite, Peter Pan, but this time around, the villain gets his own Happy Ever After…
It’s a sentiment I usually hate. They often butcher the things that make these villain’s great: twisting their morals and outlook on life as they slowly fit the mold of the bad-guy-turned-bad-ass, and it removes all of the sentiment.
This book has surpassed my expectations.
Hook remains twisted as all-hell throughout the book and every time I found myself falling under his charming spell, he quickly reminded me why he was dangerous and messed up. And, watching his toxicity bleeding into Wendy made my blood boil and my love for the book grow even further.
SPOILERS
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When the author says it’s a dark romance, I’m afraid I don’t see it.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s definitely dark, but the romance element leaves a lot up for debate. The circumstances around Wendy and James’ meeting was definitely dark and the way he worked to sweep her off her feet was definitely romance, but thanks to the dual perspective we see every twisted thing he thinks of this ‘young, innocent girl’ and how he plans to use her to get back at her father, Peter, who was responsible for his parent’s deaths.
“Tick. Tick. Tick.”
Yet, James is charming. He is mysterious and endearing, and Wendy falls for it hand over foot. She’s content to finally have someone in her life taking care of her and she chooses not to question his intentions. Her nativity is exhausting, especially as the reader knows exactly where their story is headed and it’s anything but romantic.
But, despite Emily claiming it is not a retelling, she relies very heavily on the folklore and I am HERE for it.
The constant references to the original text give the story some much needed nostalgia, and are well worth fighting through the toxic love story being spun. Made even more frustrating (in one of those really satisfying ways) when the references don’t quite fit the original text. Hook’s lackeys are commonly known as the Lost Boys, Tina Belle is still Peter’s assistant and her jealousy of Wendy shows throughout, and her fathers little nickname for her as his Little Shadow sent shivers down my spine with every reference.
And the constant ticking clock at the hands of the croc created some delicious tension as James fights to keep what is left of his sanity in one piece.
What made me fall for this first book was the simplicity and complexity of Wendy and James as comparisons. She is so quick to trust him, clearly still reeling from the neglect of her father as he looks to tear down the illegal businesses James works for. While James second guesses everything around him, causing him to act often before he thinks or has all the facts.
“Fact becomes fiction, or at the very least a warped version of the truth.”
At 60% of the book, James’ father figure has been killed at Peter’s hands, and Hook decides to take the reigns. He kidnaps Wendy, thinking she is playing some part in her fathers grand plan, and he’s too wrathful to consider otherwise.
Hook taunts Peter by bringing Wendy to a fancy gala which ultimately ends up with Peter retaliating and burning down Hook’s establishment, The Jolly Roger. All of this though, came after Wendy offered her life to protect her father. And her father just allowed her to.
What a POS.
Wendy then quickly falls in love with her captor, who in turn grows in his obsession with her. She had even made a joke towards the beginning of the book regarding Stockholm Syndrome, so I’m not surprised to see it playing out to perfectly for Hook. Which only made the sex scenes that much more uncomfortable.
“Both of which are very unbecoming traits.” - Hook
Don’t get me wrong, I love a smutty book. But nothing grinds my gears more than building up to something only to add a cut scene. But this series was far more graphic than I expected and it had nothing to do with the fairytale influence.
The choking kink that Wendy has is unsurprising and how she explores her sexuality through James is not so surprising either. She has spent her entire life on the sidelines and she finally feels empowered when ti comes to James (oh the irony). But, her praise kink raises my heckles. It opened her up too much to the emotional and physical abuse James throws her way. It ultimately drives her back to him, despite knowing all of his dark and twisted thoughts.
And, to be honest, if I have to read one more passage about how a doe-eyed girl makes a grown psychopaths ‘cock throb’ I will throw up.
That said, I truly did enjoy this book. The nostalgia element was refreshing and familiar, and compared to a lot of high fantasy that usually leaves you feeling confused as heck for the first 30% of the book, it felt oddly comforting to already have a sense of the story.
The end was a little disappointing to me though. Wendy is effectively kidnapped again, this time from Hook and by her father. It get’s revealed that Hook’s trusted worker Smee is actually working with Peter to topple Hook’s drug empire and seek revenge for his uncle which Hook killed over years of abuse. Peter then kills Smee and the whole reveal seems as though it was for nothing. As Peter then attempts to kill James, Wendy steps up and shoots Tina and her own father to protect the man she loves.
All of this happens in the span of a couple of chapters.
It’s baffling and honestly quite underwhelming, even if it does get the point across. James then gets his happy ending, getting to keep Wendy all for himself, which we see works out quite well for him in the prolog, as two-years-on, Wendy is now pregnant with their second child.
“Plenty of men have tried to woo their way into my heart, all with an agenda in their smile.”
What I did enjoy, albeit it’s my own interpretation, was the over-arching sense of history repeating itself. Though the couple ended up happy as seemingly possible, I find myself hoping the relationship would breakdown in the distant future, hoping to punish the pair of them for falling into such a toxic relationship. Sorry if that makes me twisted, but while I want them to be happy, they truly deserve whatever comes their way. Wendy ultimately placed her trust in a man who has proven himself to be a sociopath time and time again, and I can’t see that changing simply because he got the girl.
Overall, I’d rate the book 3.8 out of 5. I think there is a lot of room for improvement in terms of character growth and development of their relationship beyond sudden dependence and messed up psyche’s. But, the writing style kept me hooked (pun intended) and I truly felt I understood the characters intentions throughout. I only wish we’d gotten to see a little more of Wendy as an independent person, though that defeats the point of the story.
It’s a twisted love story and not for the faint of hearts, but if you are looking to read something a little dark and coated in nostalgia, I can’t recommend it enough.
Disclaimer: Images have been generated using Midjourney AI. Any resemblance to artwork created by others is purely coincidence, but as I am aware that there have been instances of AI using others work for their generation, I would be happy to give credit. Please do not hesitate to reach out to me if you are concerned that your artwork as been used without consent.
